The most common reasons students drop out of high school are heartbreaking

Even if it feels boring or irrelevant, just staying in school almost guarantees you'll end up in a better place than if you dropped out.

Unfortunately, according to a recent report from America's Promise Alliance, those factors rank among the top reasons why kids take themselves out of school:

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The failure is hardly a personal one. Survey responses of nearly 2,000 students who took at least a semester off at school revealed that systemic factors like boring classes and family obligations were the guiding reasons kids left.

Research shows dropping out is strongly tied to socioeconomic status. Kids who come from low-income areas are 2.4 times more likely to drop out than middle-income kids. Unlike kids from wealthier families, for whom school is usually the primary focus, poorer students must focus on other responsibilities. School becomes secondary, if it's a priority at all.

Leading education theories suggest the experience of going to school could be greatly improved if teachers and principals took a more personalized approach. If kids felt like their specific problems were being heard and their interests explored, so the argument goes, school would no longer feel like the boring and irrelevant institution many see it as today.